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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 3120666" data-attributes="member: 143">Yeah, I'm just using what's provided in the module for the most part, with an occasional tweak here and there (the module references some books that I don't own). If the crew ever does make it out into the outside world, that might change.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" /> And here it is. I find myself making more and more "Eric's grandma" edits, especially when it comes to Dar's dialogue.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f621.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":mad:" title="Mad    :mad:"  data-smilie="4"data-shortname=":mad:" /> Let me know if anyone finds what's here to still be too much (although the language in my SH is actually rather more tame that what's in popular SHs like Sepulchrave's and Sagiro's). I'm keeping the original text in all its glorious off-color in my version, for eventual PDF compilation.* * * * *Chapter 21THE PROMISE OF ESCAPEVaro said that the slime would eventually consume the entire body of the ogre, so they carefully burned away the clinging green ooze from its hands and from the stump of its leg.  The smell of burning ogre flesh that quickly filled the room wasn’t much of an improvement, and they were grateful when they could turn away from that task and search the room. There were two exits from the room, a door in the far wall and a narrow tunnel, little more than a hole in the wall, to their left.  For some inexplicable reason, the ogres had lined up several hundred copper pieces in three matched rows across the floor of the room.  The coins were not worth the effort of carrying them, especially given their present burdens, so the three left them where they lie and chalked up the whole thing to yet another example of the bizarre nature of Rappan Athuk. The small tunnel looked like it might go somewhere, but it was cramped enough so that it would require them to go through on hands and knees.  Leery of that option, they left it for the moment and turned to the far door.  The door opened onto an even smaller room.  The stench of ogres here was almost overpowering, and a great heap of furs suggested that at least some of the ogres used this chamber to bed down.  There didn’t look to be anything of value here, but Tiros recommended that they give the room a thorough search.  Dar grumbled, but the marshal’s foresight was proven valuable when they turned up a few interesting items.  Of most immediate note was a greatsword of masterwork make, and with thin lines of gleaming alchemical silver etched into the steel along the edges of the blade. “That would have been useful against the wererats, no doubt,” Varo observed.  Tiros had no interest in the weapon, so Dar added it to his growing arsenal.  They also found a small crystal bottle containing a bright blue elixir, which Varo took, and a last discovery that Dar found more interesting than even the sword. “By the gods,” he said, uncorking the thick bottle of cloudy brown glass, and sniffing at the contents. “What is it?” Tiros asked.  “Another potion?”“A thousand times better, my friend.”  The fighter took a draught from the bottle, which was about half full.  He immediately took on a contented look, and let out a sigh.  “A crime that such a thing was wasted on ogres, but I will forgive them this once, since they saw fit to leave this here.”Varo took a sniff of the bottle.  “Brandy,” he said.  Dar did not offer a drink, and the cleric did not request one. “Great,” Tiros said.  “That’s all we need on top of everything, is to have you drunk to boot.”“Suck it, marshal,” Dar said, his tone light, but his eyes hard.  “You’ve got twenty years on me, and while maybe I can’t run a command tent as well as you, when it comes to this,” he patted his sword, “you’re in no position to bitch me out.”  He laughed, and after taking another swallow of the liquor, tucked the bottle into his pack.  For a moment Tiros looked as though he would challenge the fighter over the bottle, but then he thought better of it, and instead turned and left the room. After a brief debate over whether to press on, or explore the small tunnel in the back of the room, the companions decided to at least give the tunnel a look for proceeding.  Dar, in a better mood now with a gill of distilled wine working its way through his system, agreed to take the lead.  He took off his pack, shield, and extra weapons, laying them carefully by the entrance.  Tiros handed him a torch.  Drawing his sword, he held it in his other hand as he leaned into the entrance, listening for the telltale sounds of dire rats before proceeding.But the tunnel was quiet, and no enemies surged out of the darkness to attack as he crawled down the tunnel.  The tight warren shifted to the left, and after about thirty feet opened onto a large, low-ceilinged room.  The chamber was irregularly shaped, and the worked stone of the rest of the level had given way to rough walls of packed earth.  Expecting an attack, the fighter carefully shone the torch around the room.  The place had two exits, both small tunnels like the one he had just traversed.  There were some marks in the floor that might have been prints left by creatures; they were too muddled to make out.  But otherwise, the room was empty.  “Anything?” came Tiros’s voice from the tunnel. “All quiet, for now,” Dar reported back.  “Hold on a second.”  He turned to the nearer of the two tunnel exits.  Probing it with his torch, he saw that it started sloping steeply down almost at once.  A faint breeze from below caused the light to flicker slightly.  “Wrong direction again,” he muttered to himself.  He turned away and headed over to the other tunnel mouth.  Once again, the light of his torch fluttered as he thrust it into the opening, but this time, the flame revealed a shaft that rose precipitously up.  Dar took a deep breath, and after breathing the fetid air of Rappan Athuk, with its odors of piss, crap, blood, and death, it was like he’d taken a bath. Grinning, he returned to the original tunnel opening. “You guys had better come in here,” he said.  “And bring my stuff.  I think I’ve found a way out of this craphole!”</blockquote>

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